“I have no fancy for nursing infant geniuses.”
The words of Clarke Kirby become a metaphor that is rich in meaning. The “infant geniuses” is really a singular reference to the artistic talents of teenage iron work Hugh Wolfe. The scorn and derision with which he employs the metaphor offers insight into his purely industrial mindset that sees no worth wasting raw materials on creating art. The extension of the metaphor of infancy has twin application: demeaning the value of Hugh while elevating the value of a business owner.
"Molly Wolfe"
It is not just his artistic sensibilities and sensitive temperament that alienates Hugh from his fellow mill workers; he is even physically different. The narrator describes him as a thin-muscled, weak-nerved man with a meek womanly face. The mill workers are more cruelly metaphorical:
“he was known as one of the girl-men: “Molly Wolfe” was his sobriquet.”
The Life of a Mill Worker
The entire narrative related by the narrator becomes an enactment of the horrific working conditions of the Virginia (now West Virginia) mill worker of the time. Not content with the collective effect at one point, however, the storyteller is moved to put things metaphorically—but quite plainly—into perspective by describing the life of a mill worker as one more terrifying than a ghost story because it is:
“A reality of soul- starvation, of living death”
"a street in hell"
The interior of the mill where Hugh works is described as a “city of fires” populated by “ghastly wretches.” To go there is, ultimately, like strolling down the finest boulevard in the Underworld according to the narrator.
The Unrecognized Turning Point
The centerpiece of the narrative is the short period of time in which Wolfe has the money that Deborah has stolen from Mitchell with the best intentions for Hugh. The narrator says that despite his ignorance of the fact, this night was the “crisis of his life.” He then gets metaphorical on the subject of how life can change forever in a single day without an individual have any real sense of the profound significance of those few hours at the time, describing such moments as:
“Only a trifle, a little turn of the rudder, and the ship goes to heaven or hell.”
